Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Senator John McCain and Senator Hillary Clinton are pandering floating ideas to suspend the federal gasoline tax (18.4 cents per gallon) over the summer, which is the peak driving season. I figure that my 450 miles per week works out to 10 gallons per week, since I get between 44 and 46 mpg during the summer. So, each week, I save $1.84. Multiply that by 13 weeks for the full summer season, and you get about $24 back in my pocket.

If I toasted my morning bagel at home rather than buying it in the cafeteria, I'd save that much in a month. If I made my coffee at home, on top of making the bagel at home, I'd recoup that in no time flat.

I think that it would be more geared towards companies that ship goods, not us as individuals. I think a typical semi can hold roughly 400-500 gallons of fuel (this would need to be confirmed). I also think semis get 6 MPG. So every 6 miles would save you $.18 of fuel cost. This is a large savings when you are transporting goods. It would keep the cost of goods down. But when is the largest shipping season? Not sure.

Maybe we should have the government investigate refinery capacity. It smells like Enron....er Valero, Exxon. Remember when Enron shutdown electrical capacities to raise price and make mass amounts of money on speculation of energy.

Whether it's meant for big companies or truckers or for every day tax paying citizens...it adds up to little back in the pocket. They just want to sound good and most individuals won't look beyond the sugar coating it's meant to be.